David Hughes is the Daily Telegraph's chief leader writer. He has been covering British politics for 30 years.

Will Bob Crow be having a quiet word in Len McCluskey's ear?

The best chuckle of the week has been provided by the Unite leader Len McCluskey with his warning that strike action and civil disobedience could wreck the London Olympics. There’s nothing funny about the threat; it was Comrade McCluskey’s retro-rhetoric that was so comic – pure Fred Kite: "Our parents and our grandparents, having defeated fascism in Europe, came back determined to build a land fit for heroes. They gave us the welfare state, the National Health Service, universal education. All of that is being attacked. I, for one, am not prepared to stand by and have my children or grandchildren say to me, 'What did you do when this was being taken away from us?' ” It would take a heart of stone not to hoot at that. Will it happen? I doubt it. And the main reason is the deal struck by the rail workers’ leader Bob Crow under which his members’ pockets will be stuffed with tenners for simply turning up to work during the Olympics. His RMT union has struck deals for Olympics bonuses with a number of transport companies – workers at Virgin Trains and Network Rail will receive a £500 bonus, staff on the London Overground £600 and on the Docklands Light Railway up to £2,500 (that’s right, £2,500). Crow is proud of these deals. He is not going to want them scuppered by another union trying to bring the country to a standstill during Olympics fortnight because that would, of course, require his own members to demonstrate comradely solidarity by downing tools themselves. Perhaps he'll have a quiet word with Len.